2 ?b90

259
balance between logic and intuition with which he is able to single out and
tackle his own weaknesses. He seems to be tuned in to an "inner voice"
from which his wisdom is derived and Neumann tells us that this is not an
unusual phenomenon in relation to the hero: it is "the command of the trans-
personal father or father archetype who wants the world to change.... "
43
The parental archetypes in Foci6n's family did not act as his guide but
Fronesis' birth and dual parentage follows a now traditional pattern:
With the progressive individualization of humanity and
its emergence from the inchoate state of participation
mystique the ego of each man takes on clearer definition;
but in the process, the individual becomes the hero and
has in his turn to exemplify the myth of the dragon fight.
the
...
mythological fate of the hero portrays the archetypal
fate of the ego and of all conscious development.
It serves as a model for the subsequent development of the
collective, and its stag H are recapitulated in the development
of every child.
The struggle of Fronesis or the hero to free himself from his archetypal
pair can be seen according to Neumann, in the social and personal history
of every man and woman. No wonder Lezamals character has such a fascination
for the reader despite his unusual lack of"realistic" behaviour. "El era el
elegido, " Lezama warns us, providing the reader with an outline of the kind
of background that a hero ought to have: his father could be "un estoico,
un cat6lico de los primeros tiempos, donde los misterios 6rficos pasaban al
signo del cordero" while his mother, Cemi imagines, is "austriaca criolla,
trasunto de la nobleza ancestral de la Europa oriental" (1,393-4). What-
ever Fronesis' true parentage, he has nevertheless received a suitable an--
cestry as a hero. Neumann states that "the hero is the child of aristocra-
tic parents.... "
45
The text reveals clearly that Fronesis has had two mothers, one purely
spiritual and the other biological. Not only has Maria Teresa agreed to
marry her sister's lover and raise their love child as her own, she seems
also to have foregone the physical aspects of motherhood entirely, since